State Convention'—Interconvertible Notes. 215 
and it is doubtful if even archangels would be equal to the task.” 
Now, to whom is it proposed to entrust the settlement of a point 
so beset with difficulties—so fraught with danger? 
One most notable feature of the convention just referred to, was 
the unmeasured denunciation of public men of all grades and of 
whatever party. So great is the venality and moral degradation in 
both executive and legislative branches of the government, in the 
opinion of one of the speakers, that he forbore from very shame to 
characterize it in fit terms. Their new party is, of course, to cor¬ 
rect this condition of things. Hut no spasm of refoim, however 
violent, no party, however pure, can be certain that the men it re¬ 
turns to office will prove to be all that could be wished; can be sure 
that none of those which it honors with place will be found unlit, by 
nature or training, to be financiers; that none of them will yield to 
the allurements that lead men away from the paths of correct, 
high-minded legislation. Nor will it be claimed that the party 
itself may not in time become demoralized and corrupted by long 
possession of power; and yet it is proposed to put into the hands of 
Congress unrestrained control over the volume of the currency—to 
confide to the keeping of these much denounced party managers 
and politicians, unlimited sway for good or evil over the most sacred 
and sensitive possessions of the government—its commercial integ¬ 
rity and credit. The man from whom such a proposition could 
emanate, so far from distrusting the average congressman, should 
have a faith in his sagacity, honesty, and self-restraint, so sublime 
as with difficulty to be distinguished from the ridiculous. Without 
endorsing any such sweeping abuse of our public men. it may well 
be believed that it would be most hazardous to entrust arbitrary 
control of the volume of currency to Congress; for its members are 
human—swayed by the dictates of ambition—subjected to the strain 
of party considerations—egged on, perhaps, by the clamor of a 
needy, unthinking constituency. It is a power too potent for mis¬ 
chief to be put into the hands of any man or set of men; it should, 
to the utmost possible limit, be left to the regulation of economic 
laws. 
Nor is it for a moment forgotten that the greenback party claim 
for their plan that it affords an effectual safeguard against danger 
from this source; but let us try to analj’ze the pretensions of that 
claim. The invariable tendency to over-issue, and the inevitable 
